plumber
Americannoun
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plumbers
plural
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a person who installs and repairs piping, fixtures, appliances, and appurtenances in connection with the water supply, drainage systems, etc., both in and out of buildings.
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Slang. an undercover operative or spy hired to detect or stop leaks of news or secret information, often using questionable or illegal methods, as illegal entry or wiretapping.
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Obsolete. a worker in lead or similar metals.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of plumber
1375–1425; 1965–70 plumber for def. 2; late Middle English, spelling variant of Middle English plowber ≪ Late Latin plumbārius leadworker; replacing Middle English plummer < Anglo-French; Old French plummier < Latin, as above. See plumb, -er 2
Explanation
A plumber is someone whose job includes fixing pipes and installing water and sewage systems. If your kitchen sink is clogged, a plumber is the person to call. Plumbers's work ranges from relatively simple tasks like repairing toilets and removing clogs from drains, to much more complicated jobs including replacing all the old corroded pipes in a bathroom floor with new ones. The word plumber has been around since ancient Rome, when a plumber was "anyone who works with lead," and lead was a common material for pipes, baths, drains, and conduits. Fixing anything made of lead (which included roofs) made someone a plumber back then.
Vocabulary lists containing plumber
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
One is why anyone living a normal life needs a bot to perform such quotidian tasks as reading and writing emails, placing appointments on a calendar or calling a plumber.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
In a Fox News interview, Netanyahu also praised an Israeli passenger who helped overpower the attacker, identifying him only as Yanik and describing him as a plumber.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
But when the water heater broke, I paid the plumber.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
Josefa Ippolito-Shepherd, a senior who works as a public-health scientist, called a plumber when she started feeling sick from fumes in her Washington, D.C., home—a smell she described as “like feces.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
“He says I was supposed to marry a plumber and have five kids. I told him, ‘Uh-uh, I don’t think so!’
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
“That was unintended,” he replies, only digging himself in deeper when he explains that, like plumbers or electricians, he was there to do a job.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2026
The researchers say the register lays bare the breadth of which individuals contributed financially to the slave trade - from monarchs and politicians, to plumbers and clergymen.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
A sort of community in miniature emerged, with security and scavenger teams and plumbers and one lone doctor running an overpacked infirmary.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
AFSCME’s members include custodians, gardeners, dining hall food service staff, transportation workers and skilled craft workers such as plumbers and electricians.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026
Mami, who I’m sure will say, “Do you have a permiso?” steps aside like the toilet is overflowing and these are the plumbers coming to the rescue!
From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
